It was a long time coming, but we're finally here. President Barack Obama announced Friday that virtually all remaining U.S. troops currently deployed in Iraq will be coming home at the end of this year -- finally ending the nearly ten-year occupation in Iraq.

"After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," Obama said in a press conference Friday. "The coming months will be a season of homecomings. Our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays."

There are about 40,000 troops in Iraq right now and only 150 of them will have to stay behind to help in arm sales, a U.S. official said to CNN. Everyone else will be out of the country by December 31, just in time for New Years.

In the announcement, Obama stressed that he was keeping a promise he made during the 2008 campaign. The Iraq War has claimed over 4,400 U.S. soldiers' lives since March 2003, when the war started.

Top Opinion

The real question is whether Congress will step up and treat the troops fairly by making sure that jobs are created so these brave heroes don't lose their homes because they don't get a war check anymore!

i always hear the protestors chanting bush lied thousands died...to be fair add obama cause he said he'd end the wars and bring them home so obama lied and thousands died doesn't matter who 'started' it, obama could have ended it

No. I am afraid 0bama may order them to invade Syria if it will be obvious that Muslim Brotherhood is losing to current Syrian regime. 0bama is on the mission of installing Muslim Brothers in power all over the middle east. It is the same MB which spawned Al Qaeda and Ayman Al-Zawahiri is their man.

I don't know any soldiers, but I'm glad they're coming home. I'm just curious: what exactly do you guys think we need to accomplish? Saddam's dead, Bin Laden's dead, Quaddafi's dead... What is left to do there, besides wasting more money? If the Iraqis want peace so bad, let them do it themselves. Just look at the people of Jordan.

Afghanistan still continues.R.I.P. Army First lieutenant Ashley White Stumpf, 24killed in action Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Ashley was assigned to the 230th Brigade Support Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, North Carolina National Guard, Goldsboro, N.C., and served as a member of the Cultural Support Team attached to a Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan.

While I support our brave soldiers in several tangible ways, I no longer know any of them or their families. I hope the pre-announced departure schedules and the 'leakage' of shoulder-fired rockets or other weapons that are flooding the region don't place these fine men and women at greater risk so they can make it back home safely.

I also know several who will be happy not to have to go back there. BUT, this is the wrong way to do this and AND this is a bait and switch, we will keep about 15,000 troops there indefinitely but obama will rename them a domestic force. So, another total lie from the liar in chief.

I have 8 "second sons" (that I didn't birth) that will be glad and three will (maybe) get to come home. I also have one who is headed back to Afghanistan, and he is newly married and she just miscarried, so, I hope the drawdown in Iraq means maybe he will get to stay home.

I love all my boys, but I can see the differences in each of them and it scares me.

I "adopted" each of them as I was getting them motivated to join the Marines. Helping them get organized before basic and cheering each success, each stripe and each safe return home. They call me, the facebook me and they visit when they come home. I am incredibly proud of their honor in serving and the fact that they have all matured into decent, decent men.

Thanks, just trying to get as many as possible to get out of this backwater area and get valuable skills for better jobs later. There is nothing here, no jobs, no hope, no real chance at a better life. So, the military gets them to a better place and they grow out of the mindset that this is all there is.

I love my guys and I want all of them and their families to have a chance at something better.

i amke all of mine take a pocket constitution with them. I also expect that they understand government finance, so they can see what gets taken from their checks to support people, nations and corporations that don't necessarily like us.

They also understand we are a republic, and I encourage them to read the founding fathers as I read them to my daughter. I highly recommend the federalist papers. Of course, I do all of that for a lot of my customers as well.

Yes and they are pissed off at the fact that all they have worked for is being thrown away by Obama idiot for votes.. They know they or their sons will have to go back to that Hell Hole to redo what they have already done... Way to make all that Death and Misery meaningless Mr Obama

Don't hold your breath, and even if some do come home there will be many that will be sent in their place and many that never come back. All this is just a ploy to get approval from his followers who want communism in this country and he is betting on getting votes from this action. From what I've been hearing there are way too many invading this country, AL-queda being one of them. How many will be deployed to Uganda? I just can't trust this impostor. Sorry!

My older brother is already home, so who cares? He already serve for the US Marines for five years and he is honorably discharged. I'm just glad that our brothers and sisters are coming home. We killed two main targets, so these terrorism towelheads are defenseless here. They need to spend time with their families and loved ones. Thanks Obama, but we still want you out of office since you extended the tax cut plan.